Forecasters use a combination of science and technology to predict the state of the atmosphere for a given location. A mix of radar, satellite, forecast models and observational data are all used to assist forecasters. Historically, weather observation networks focus on atmospheric conditions and ignore the area below the horizon where people live and drive. Thus, most weather data is primarily tailored to aviation, and not ground traffic. An example of this is forecasting a tornado for a specific area. Forecasting that atmospheric conditions are favorable for this event is possible; however, confirming this event is not possible from current weather forecasting technology. Forecasters can predict specific atmospheric conditions which are consistent with a specific weather event, but unfortunately cannot verify that the event is actually taking place, or will take place. Confirmation is left to local storm-chasers, or amateur footage to confirm the event by visual means.
Current predictive techniques for weather patterns are generally performed on a national, or multi-state regional scale. This large scale weather prediction is largely insufficient for predicting the location of specific weather conditions with enough precision to ultimately assist Emergency Response Management personnel. Prior art weather monitoring stations are generally spaced 100-200 miles apart due to expense and complexity. The wide spacing and skyward focus of these monitoring stations largely prevents them from monitoring ground conditions, and provides weather data accurate enough only to predict general weather patterns.
In order to mitigate the inability to verify local weather events, the industry has begun developing observation systems focusing on surface/ground observation. Some of these systems are able to view weather conditions using a CCTV camera system. The National Mesonet Program Alliance is one program developed specifically for ground-based observations. Another example of emerging ground-based detection systems is lightning detection, which enables real-time verification of lightning strikes.
State and local governments operate ground-based observation systems which include CCTV capabilities using weather information for winter road maintenance and traffic control. Local transportation departments usually collect road and weather data from two or more sources, such as the National Weather Service (NWS) and Road Weather Information Systems (RWIS), and fuse these data to generate information for winter road maintenance. Traffic CCTV cameras are used primarily for traffic control, although some are used to assess weather conditions.
Mesonet systems offer a significant advance in small-scale weather data. These systems, however, do not provide a coordinated visual observation capability for tracking weather events. Much of the weather data focuses on air temperature, dew point, wind speed, and data which may be augmented to atmospheric data.
Very few of any of the above mentioned systems have the ability to archive visual observations which could be used for forensics and research forecasting efforts.
Finally, the above approaches fail to exploit an inherent benefit of visually being able to observe an event in real-time, which is a critical aspect of providing validation to atmospheric models and forecasts.